I can tell you that before this happened to us I believed what I saw on the news, read in the newspaper and I believed in our judicial system. I thought our system was fair and just. If you truly believe that it is then I hope that at some point in your life you will have to experience what we have.

My husband was found guilty of a crime he did not commit. I am sure we have heard that all before but have you ever believed it? I never did and now look what has happened to us.

On June 24, 2006, there was a fight at the fair.  We were at the fair that night. My husband and our four kids. My husband was wearing white linen dress pants and a colorful sweater. I will never forget that because I teased his choice of dress several times throughout the day. Who wears white pants to the fair?  It was even raining that day. I knew they would get dirty.

We were having fun that night. Our kids ran from ride to ride. We ate some fair food. We ran into friends Annie Lund (witness 1) and Nurija Beganovic (witness 2). The adults decided to go on one ride. It looked mellow enough for me to handle. Three people (me, Mevludin and Nurija) could lie on your stomachs and the ride lifts you in the air and spins you around (it was pretty mild/ people were even taking small kids on the ride).  As the ride was slowing to an end; Nurija's cell phone rang and someone told them that there was a fight. From what I understood, there was a fight between Bosnians and Mexicans. The first thing I did when we got off the ride was to grab my kids. There was chaos. People were running everywhere. We were running in the direction of the chaos. Our concern was Mevludin's twelve-year-old brother was at the fair and he could have been hurt.  When we approached the area the fight was done. Everyone had run away. Now looking back I realized I didn't see any injured people. I am not sure if they had run away too or were maybe taken to the fair office. There were some people standing around talking about the disbelief of it all.  We decided it was best to go home at this point. We were unsure if something else could happen and it would be safer to go home. We gave a boy whose father was a cousin of Mevludin's a ride home and went home ourselves.

Now four days later Mevludin gets a phone call from the police asking if he was at the fair on June 24, 2006.  He said yes he was there with is family. They asked if he was in a fight and he said no.  ONE MONTH LATER we were watching the evening news and saw his picture on the TV!! They were saying he is wanted for a felony in being involved in the fair fight.  We were shocked and called the news station.  There had to be some mistake.  The news station told us to call the police in the morning.  We did not sleep all night.  How can be he charged with something he had nothing to so with?  Why didn't they question anyone he was with? How can this happen?

The next day he went in to talk to the police and is arrested. He sat the entire weekend in jail and we posted bail on Monday.

We spoke to attorneys who constantly assured us that this was an excellent case. They haven't seen such a good case come across their desk. We attempted to get this big mistake dismissed. The police repeatedly told us they have eye witnesses who identified him from a driver's license picture line up.  I was shocked for a minute then I thought to myself.  Put twenty Bosnian men together and try to pick Mevludin out. They are all about the same height and built. They all have the same hair color and eye color. It took me four years of being with Mevludin to be able to tell everyone apart.  We were offered a plea bargain. A misdemeanor and 30 days in jail.  We were horrified. Thirty days is a long time for something you didn't do. I encouraged him and told him we have a fair system. We will take it to a jury trial. They have to prove you guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. I knew that would be impossible.

I went to the entire trial from jury selection to the verdict. We were constantly assured that we have a great case. I didn't like the jury selection from the start. There was one juror that stuck out in my head. Her name was Becky Rettig. When she was being questioned during jury selection she mentioned that her husband was beat on the head with a flashlight. I thought to myself that there is no way she could make a decision without thinking of her personal experience. Our lawyer decided to keep her. He said she seemed headstrong and she assured us she would make a good decision.

The prosecution calls four witnesses who were attacked.  No of them could say if Mevludin was involved.  They said it happened too fast and they couldn't see.  Our attorney tried to get the trial dismissed three separate times throughout the trial and each time it was denied. There was just no evidence.

Now they got to their “star” witness. Her name was Tecola. She is 100% sure she saw Mevludin hitting people over the head with a baseball bat. I couldn't really figure out what was going on.  They ended up removing the jury and impeaching part of her statement.  The lawyer also brought up a felony theft charge on her record that was later dropped to a misdemeanor by disposition. She made a claim on the stand that she saw Sinan in the courtroom. Sinan was a Bosnian male involved in the fight that plead guilty to a misdemeanor for his role in it. Now Sinan did not step foot in the courthouse for any of Mevludin's trial. Maybe he was feeling guilty. So I thought we proved that her eyewitness testimony from an event that was seven months ago was not accurate. 

They called other witnesses which none could be positive it was Mevludin.  They couldn't identify the clothes he was wearing. They had no physical evidence. No bat as evidence. This was only an eyewitness case. We all know eyewitness testimony is far from accurate.  

Mevludin, Nurija, Annie and I were called as witnesses. Annie established what he was wearing. It was submitted as evidence. The pants were never washed and still had a little mud from the bottom of his pant leg dragging in the rain water. There were no tears in the pants or blood. His sweater was in excellent condition.  He had only worn it the one time.  Now wouldn't you think if you were involved in a riot with a baseball bat; you would have some blood splatters or be dirty or torn?? That is reasonable doubt to me. 

Our testimony was very similar. After all, we were there, we were telling the truth of everything that happened and we were all doing the same things!! The prosecuting attorney made sure to make us look bad. That we would lie for Melvudin but that wasn't the case. If Mevludin was involved I would never lie for him. He would have to pay his dues for his involvement. It just broke my heart to see someone suffering as much as him.  He wasn't eating or sleeping.  He didn't want to leave the house or do anything.  He kept asking me how this could happen in the USA; we are supposed to be the best country.  If you know him at all.  He is not an athletic guy by any means.  He has never owned a baseball bat or even played baseball. He takes more time to get ready to go somewhere than I do. It just seems so crazy. I felt confidence in the jury and I had tons of support from family and co-workers who know Mevludin and know he is not capable of this.  I recall a channel 6 news gal sitting by me during the trial.  At one point she leaned over and said she couldn't believe this made it to trial.  There is just no evidence. She assured me that there would be a not guilty plea.

The jury deliberated on Friday at 10:30am.  We didn't leave the courthouse.  We paced the halls.  You could hear the jury arguing the room they were in.  I thought to myself that some must think he is really guilty.  I started to get really nervous.  

Then at 5pm on a Friday the jury comes back with a verdict. We gather in the courtroom. When the jury enters the courtroom. Many of them are carrying Kleenex and are crying to the point of sobbing. Each one of them said he was guilty. It was the most surreal thing that has ever happened to me. I was living in some horrible dream.  I thought to myself if I was 100% confident in my decision I wouldn't be crying. I would stand by my decision. I watched Mevludin sit down crying with his face in his hands.  His son had to be taken out of the courtroom because he was crying so loud. I kept thinking to myself how can this be happening to us? What did we do to deserve this in life?

Shortly after the trial a juror came forward. It was the juror named Becky. She signed an affidavit stating that she convinced all of the other jurors to find Mevludin guilty.  She went on to explain that when the jury went to deliberate; eleven said not guilty and she was the only guilty. She said over the next six to seven hours she convinced everyone to change their minds. Her affidavit was unbelievable. She made specific statements about his race. It was all horrible. By this time we decided to hire an attorney. We had used a court appointed attorney previously and obviously got nowhere fast with him. Mevludin's family offered to help us. Our new attorney motioned for a new trial based on this juror's damning affidavit.

I had confidence going into this hearing. I felt like this mess had to be fixed somewhere along the line. I had hope that Judge Wade Webb would see the truth. I was wrong. He denied the motion for the new trial. Mevludin was sent to Bismarck State Penitentiary. I was devastated once again.

By March 2007, we were surprised once again.  A female witness came forward. She said she was there for the whole fight. Her boyfriend and father of her two children was struck with the bat. She was scared to come forward in fear of her safety. She said when she saw on the news that the wrong man was in jail she decided to come forward. Our attorney motioned for a new trial based on new evidence, a new witness, who was never questioned before, and has no reason to lie. We were once again excited and let down. Judge Webb refused a new trial. 

I have no hope left anymore. Our only options now are the long and very expensive appeal process. If Mevludin does not get this conviction overturned, he will face deportation. After his sentence is complete he will be detained by Immigration. They will hold him through an entire immigration trial. 

Study after study shows that there is a much higher chance of a misidentification when you have somebody trying to make the identification across racial lines..... People are most able to accurately identify those from their own racial group because they're used to making the distinctions between those who they spend time with regularly. So that when psychologists do studies of identifications they find a higher incidence of misidentifications when the identification is cross-racial.

Whites tend to identify whites with more accuracy; blacks tend to identify blacks with more accuracy. We are able to distinguish the features of those whom we're most familiar with. Most whites spend most of their time with other white people; most blacks spend most of their time with other black people distinguishing between people of their own race.

Keep in mind that most witnesses are obliging--they want to help, and in the case of a violent crime or assault, they have an added incentive to help the police capture a violent criminal. In addition, research tells us that witnesses believe the police would not conduct a lineup unless they had a good suspect. Although witnesses try hard to identify the true criminal, when they are uncertain--or when no one person in the lineup exactly matches their memory--they will often identify the person who best matches their recollection of the criminal. And often their choice is wrong.

Defense attorneys often ask judges to read a list of instructions to the jury on the dangers of eyewitness identification (this was not done in our case). But the instructions tend to be convoluted and hard for many people to follow. Moreover, numerous psychological studies have shown that jurors have difficulty understanding the instructions. Another possible solution in eyewitness cases is expert testimony--a psychologist can explain to the jury how human memory works and apply the experimental findings to the case in question.

Mevludin’s case is a case of mistaken identity. 

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